Ahrendt v. Chamberlain’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[w]hen a circuit court divides property, 'the law does not require perfection that would approach a mathematical certainty.' " MacKaben v. MacKaben , 2015 S.D. 86 , ¶ 33, 871 N.W.2d 617 , 628 (quoting Pellegrin v. Pellegrin , 1998 S.D. 19 , ¶ 24, 574 N.W.2d 644 , 649 ). Factors to consider when classifying and dividing property include: (1) the duration of the marriage; (2) the value of the property owned by the parties; (3) the ages of the parties; (4) the health of the parties; (5) the competency of the parties to earn a living; (6) the contribution of each party to the accumulation of the property; and (7) the income-producing capacity of the parties' assets. Ahrendt , 2018 S.D. 31 , ¶ 10, 910 N.W.2d at 918 (quoting Terca , 2008 S.D. 99 , ¶ 20, 757 N.W.2d at 325 ). [¶23.] Scotty claims that the majority of Kathy's credit card debt should have been categorized as nonmarital debt "because her profligacy and financial neglect created enormous credit card balances and the majority of the debt was incurred post-separation.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Green v. Green

2. “South Dakota is an all property state, meaning all property of the divorcing parties is subject to equitable division by the circuit court, regardless of title or origin.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Green v. Green

3. “The circuit court [should] not [ ] become entangled in the semantics of marital versus nonmarital property.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Green v. Green